Chris Amirault

I use the skin from homemade lop yuk, which adds both flavor and body bc of the gelatin. Dejah, did you use just carcasses, bodies, or what? Any additional chicken feet for the gelatin?

This sounds great -- though due to a misread I thought the butter would be "browned butter," not "brown sugar butter." I wonder if that wouldn't make a nice additional element, adding a bit of melted and cooled browned butter to this mixture....

I think that they do matter, but I can't figure out how. I've now twice made Paula Wolfert's "Lamb with Apples," a simple dish that is a revelation with good lamb. I resisted making the dish at first, I think, because of the simplicity of the name -- which is odd, given that I typically order food at new restaurants by choosing the simplest of names!

Marc, how would you define "mature"? More mature demeanor, it would seem, but I'm not sure what you mean in re cooking.

Interesting note about "local" in Sam Sifton's NYT review of SD26:

Excellent question. It was financially possible, sure, for me to buy that pork for $8/lb, but only in the strictest logical sense of the term. Pragmatically, it was impossible: I had more I needed to buy with that $20 than a 2+ lb piece of pork shoulder.

Some interesting 2010 predictions from Natural Foods Merchandiser and Mintel, a market research firm:

Biscotti? It's pretty easy, keeps forever, impressive, and allows for a variety of flavors/ingredients.

Yeah -- I'm limited to three, I'm afraid. But thanks for the ideas.

I can't believe no one is asking for an Ultra Pride+ wet/dry grinder.

Thanks so much for this! I just bought three dozen 4 oz bottles for this year's projects (pimento dram, pineapple rum, hot sauce, vanilla extract).

I've since learned that I can even screw up a Manhattan if I am sufficiently exhausted, and for this purpose I keep a few bottles of Fever Tree tonic water around for a Plymouth & tonic.

Has anyone grabbed a copy of Simon Difford's Encyclopedia of Cocktails? I have looked just a bit at it online, and I can't tell what to make of it.

I've given up hoping for quality drinks at most bars outside of the urban centers where one can expect knowledge and execution. I assume the ice is warm, the vermouth is old, ... on and on. So all I ask -- really, the single thing -- is that when a bartender asks me what I want, s/he will listen to the answer. It's never lengthy, but it is usually specific, and I guarantee that I spent three or four minutes figuring it out.

I can say with confidence that I have converted at least a dozen people to the joys of genever thanks to the Improved Holland Gin Cocktail, and anyone still teetering on gin-phobia lost it after a Martinez. I decided to bring the makings for not only Aviations but also Last Words, Corpse Reviver #2s, and Barnum (Was Right) Cocktails. Now I need a bit of help. The last session is going to feature a punch, a nog, and a champagne cocktail. I already did a Mississippi Punch variation for the rum course, so that's out. I also might sub in Tom & Jerrys for nogs... not sure. Finally, I think that "roll your own" champagne cocktails may end the evening (and course). What do you think? Care to opine what the gang should learn?

No, I have more abrasive properties if I generate twenty dirty dish towels. Just laziness. Not sure I understand why that would be. The fruit stays room temp, for example.

One point worth mentioning is that you should save the chicken fat you get off of your stock and use it for stir-fries, especially with garlic and greens. Add some salt and you need nothing else.

Sounds like it's, well, corn flour, which in the US is finely ground dried corn. (Here, we call the stuff you're calling "cornflour" corn starch, bc it's the white powdered starch extracted through milling corn. Nomenclature...!) We have it around the house as a staple for corn breads, coating for fried items, pancakes, and other items.

If you have enough product to experiment, I'd start with that duck ham recipe myself -- or run a few concurrently. Document, please!

You can absolutely substitute in one salt for another. Just aim for rough weight equivalents as best you can -- or, if someone here has Morton's handy, they can tell you how much 2 1/2 T weighs. (I'm a Diamond Crystal guy.)

I'm likely to be staying in Nakano for more than a week, and so I'd be eager to hear any and all recommendations. I'm also new to tsukemen, so opine away about what I should or shouldn't do while in Tokyo. Thanks!

Not sure about the rest, but that lamb can all be ground or minced, combined with some of those onions and that that garlic, some spices, and made into little meatballs or kebabs.

YMMV, but I find that canned beans tend to fall apart in this and other applications where long cooking and a bit of rough treatment are necessary. I agree. The raison d'etre of cassoulet is the heavenly trinity of beans, meat, and fat combining in a rich, succulent mixture that is unattainable through any other means. Skin-on pork belly, confit, sausages... the fat (ETA and collagen) of all components is precisely what makes it good. If you don't want the fat, why make cassoulet?

The Little Italy is a great drink. As for the Red Hook, I'm not one for stickling about taxonomies -- and Maraschino makes me break rules all the time. But if you take Steve's OP (and not the topic title), I submit that the drink is a fine "enhancement," if not technically a variation. I'm at work and don't have the book handy, but isn't there something like "Brown with Vermouth and Bitters" in the Rogue cocktails book?

I'm partial to the Red Hook (2 oz Rittenhouse BIB, 1/2 oz Luxardo Maraschino, 1/2 oz Punt e Mes, twist), myself.